Did the White House approve McCain’s photo op with the Syrian rebels?

posted at 4:01 pm on May 28, 2013 by Allahpundit

They were “aware” of the visit, as you’ll see below, but being “aware” and approving of it are two different things. I’ll give Maverick the benefit of the doubt and assume that he wouldn’t have taken a little propaganda trip against the White House’s wishes, no matter how pro-rebel (or rather, pro-interventionist) he is, at a moment when O’s sweating out a decision on whether to do more in Syria. The fact remains, though, whether Obama-approved or not, his trip was propaganda. Via Roll Call, here’s a glimpse from a recent Dexter Filkins piece in the New Yorker of the rebels who are doing most of the fighting while McCain was being glad-handed yesterday:

In recent months, with urging from the U.S. and its allies, a large number of the estimated seventy thousand rebel fighters have been brought together under a joint military command, a coalition of thirty armed groups, which American officials imagine as a nascent national army. The joint command, based just inside Turkey, is led by General Salim Idris, a high-ranking defector from Assad’s regime. Proponents of greater aid for the rebels have suggested that arms and money be sent through Idris, to solidify his command. A senior American official who works on Syria policy said that approximately half of the money now flowing to the rebels goes through the joint command, and that Idris has begun to coördinate operations. “This is a war of attrition, and the government is losing,’’ the official said. “It doesn’t mean it is going to collapse tomorrow, but the trend lines are negative.”

Obama has made clear, however, that he has little confidence in the rebels, arguing that they are ideologically fractured, that the rebellion lacks a coherent structure, and that individual groups would be impossible to control and would probably fight each other. Some of the guns, he believes, could ultimately make their way to Islamist groups. Idris has pointedly excluded some extremists from the coalition, including Al Nusra and another collection of hard-line Islamist groups, the Syrian Islamic Front. (Al Nusra, for its part, never asked to join up.) But, according to American officials and nongovernmental groups that work in the region, the overwhelming majority of the rebels are fighting for an Islamic republic. Al Nusra, like the other Al Qaeda affiliates, wants to do away with the Syrian state altogether and reëstablish the Islamic caliphate. “The Islamists are the majority,’’ Elizabeth O’Bagy, an analyst for the Institute for the Study of War who has travelled to rebel-held areas several times, said. The small number of non-Islamists among the rebels are often socialists, she told me, and are referred to by their peers with an English word: “hippies.”

There is a cold-blooded argument to be made for arming the rebels, now more than ever and despite their Islamist tendencies: Hezbollah’s going all-in on Syria, and the more well-armed Sunni nuts there are to greet them there, the better the chances are of a massive jihadi bloodletting on both sides. There may not be much time left either, as Assad’s forces — with Hezbollah’s help — have reportedly turned the tide in key areas that are vital to their supply routes. The better they do this month, the more leverage they’ll have at the big “peace” conference next month. McCain could, if he chose, press the point that if our enemies are willing to kill each other, we should do what we can to make sure the fight goes on for as long as possible, but the effect of yesterday’s photo op is the opposite. He wants Americans to believe that there’s some significant element of Syrian rebels who are budding U.S. allies and that they’re sufficiently formidable and well organized to be able to host a U.S. senator inside Syria. (In fact, McCain’s visit was held just on the other side of the border with Turkey.) Less than a month ago, the Guardian reported that members of the moderate-ish Free Syrian Army were becoming radicalized and defecting en masse to jihadist rebel factions like Jabhat al-Nusra. A few days before that, the New York Times reported, “Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.” That’s the reality belied by McCain’s stunt, presumably undertaken with the White House’s blessing, to mislead the public into thinking there just might be an American friend in the making somewhere inside the maelstrom.

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When dems did this crap during a Bush presidency it infuriated me (Clinton and Carter both did it at least once) . I’m just as mad at this nonsense. This is a stupid PR stunt. Just let Ogabe drown in his own vomit of a foreign policy.

He needs to go away like yesterday. I can’t believe I held my nose and voted for this idiot. In a way I’m glad he didn’t win cause God only knows where he would be starting wars. Not that Obama is any better, but this guy is chewing with his teeth out.

Obama: Welcome back, John.
McCain: Thank you, sir. It was a rough mission.
Obama: Yes, the last place you needed to end your career was in the Damascus Hilton. What do you think I should do?
McCain: You should arm the Syrian al Qaeda, I mean the Syrian freedom fighters.
Obama: No need to mince words with me, John, we know who butters our bread.
McCain: Yes, and the Saudis are none too pleased with our reluctance to go all in against Assad and the Iranians, I mean the Syrians.
Obama: I’ve been distracted by what your party insists on calling scandals, John.
McCain: Yes, Mr President, I know. Thanks to that disastrous VP pick of mine, Sarah Pain in the Neck, we’ve got some wacko-birds. But don’t worry, Lindsey and Marco and I will put a stop to all of it. Look what Lyndsey did for Bill Clinton and how Marco is point man on removing those pesky borders.
Obama: Thanks, John, I appreciate that. Lindsey and Marco both know I love them. I have photos for proof. Thanks for the report. You’re dismissed.

There is a cold-blooded argument to be made for arming the rebels, now more than ever and despite their Islamist tendencies: Hezbollah’s going all-in on Syria, and the more well-armed Sunni nuts there are to greet them there, the better the chances are of a massive jihadi bloodletting on both sides

McCain is a miracle of idiocy. When he isn’t going to bat for foreign criminals here he is trying to get us involved in more useless wars overseas on the behalf of people who hate us. Absolutely one of the dumbest politicians in human history.

So here is what we know :
1. Hussein and Holder run guns for drug cartels and jihad.

2. Hussein is phone buddies with Turkish Cardigan

3. Hussein’s sends his people in the Turkish flotilla to arm jihadys

4. Ambassador Stevens met with Turkish Ambassador in Benghazi

5. 4 Americas died after the Turk left

6. Hussein lets them die

7. When Benghazi comes under investigation, the Turkish Cardigan comes running to the White House

8. McCain , Hussein’s left hand man, runs to Turkey /Syria to assure alqaeda in Turkey that guns and money will keep flowing to them, although the supply line from Benghazi is kindda closed
( wink wink)

So , why is McCain aiding and abetting alqaeda at the behest of Hussein ? Do we know that yet ? I’m sure it’s not because he is a senile fool , so WHY ?

McCain is worse than “fundamentally flawed” in the political sense. There has always been something very wrong with his character, which is one of extreme “me-first-and-only” self-entitlement. He was wrongfully admitted to the Naval Academy with bad grades ahead of more qualified applicants because his daddy and granddaddy were admirals. Rules that apply to ordinary people don’t apply to him. He thumbed his nose at Annapolis because he couldn’t be kicked out or flunked out, because he was JOHN MCCAIN, son and grandson of ADMIRALS. He ignored orders and crashed planes, because he couldn’t be disciplined as the son and grandson of admirals. He ditched the wife who stood by him, when he wanted a rich blonde chick young enough to be his daughter, who could finance his political ambition.

He was caught taking bribes to his wife from the Keating 5, so tried to cover his tracks by imposing the McCain-Feingold nonsense on everyone else (laws only apply to everyone else, not to JOHN MCCAIN). He entertained a blonde lobbyist in ways that worried his staff, and improperly pressured the FCC for her in exchange for …., because he is JOHN MCCAIN!!!!!!. He yelled obscenities at other senators who questioned ramming his McCain-Kennedy amnesty through the Senate in the dead of night without debate, and screamed he knew more about it than anyone else – because he is JOHN MCCAIN, a legend in his own mind !!!!!! He has had secret no press allowed meetings to praise Mexico as our dearest friend and closest neighbor, calling enforcement of the laws “Rhetoric”.

As president, McCain, like the man he helped elect. Barack Obama, would have tried to rule by fiat and would make Hugo Chavez look like George Washington. Like the Alice in Wonderland Queen of Hearts, if any GOP congresscritter disagreed with him “OFF WITH HER HEAD- I’m JOHN MCCAIN, KING OF THE UNIVERSE!!!” There has always been something consistently very wrong with McCain’s character. Through it all, this lying unreliable self-aggrandizing megalomaniac poses as a “straight talker”, and is so sick, he probably believes it himself, because he is JOHN MCCAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!, son and grandson of ADMIRALS.

Supporters of al-Qaeda have said they would prefer Republican candidate John McCain to win the US election because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a message broadcast on the password-protected al-Hesbah site, the group said they would also welcome a pre-election terror attack on the US because that would make a McCain win more likely.

In an endorsement that will not be welcomed by Mr McCain’s flagging campaign, the group said that if al-Qaeda wants to exhaust the US, militarily and economically, the “impetuous” Republican presidential candidate is the better choice.

“This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier,” the message said.

“Then, al-Qaeda will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush.”

“If al-Qaeda carries out a big operation against American interests,” it said, “this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it.”

All roads lead to Turkey. You are dead on to point all these links out. McCain is either an idiot or he is doing his best to try to provide some cover for the shitstorm in Benghazi. There is no way that him and Graham and others in the Senate intelligence committees weren’t aware of guns going to AQ through Libya. Pure CYA mixed in with high Kabuki theatre.

Once again, “useful idiot” AMNESTY-JOHN makes me embarrassed to be a resident of Arizona (NB: I have NEVER voted for this traitor and NEVER will.) After helping OBOZO get his islamofascist pals al qaeda / muslim brotherhood / hamas in power in Libya, McRINO is now helping our Muslim-in-Chief do the same in Syria. AMNESTY-JOHN is not only a disgrace to Arizona, he’s a disgrace to America and the rest of the free world (or what’s left of it).

Obama needs McCain to provide ambiguous support for his ambivalent strategy. The main benefit of his support is that the president can blame him for anything that goes wrong and attach bi-partisan intentions to it. Well done, John! You picked another winning issue!

It would be better for the US to concentrate on undermining Iran and their various client terrorist states.

Oh, yes, and what are we going to do about Saudi Arabia now that the Old Saud has been in a suspiciously long snooze? Should we be arming Wahabi rebels there too?

I guess “Smart Power” left the State Department when Hillary passed on the official whitewash brush to Lerch Kerry.